Friday, February 02, 2007

Well, we got back from Cape May LATE on Wednesday, December 27th, and it was back to work Thursday morn. But after work Friday, we again hit the road, this time with our friends Sean and Cheryl. We headed down to Savannah, GA for the weekend, and we stayed on Tybee Island in a rental house.

We ran into the owner’s of the house Sunday morning as we were coming back form church and they were returning from the local dog park (hey, to each their own- we started our day with Hail Mary’s, they started their’s with Bloody Mary’s). This is where the adventure started, as we accepted an offer to join them on their boat and head over to Daufuskie Island.

Interesting cats. Paul is on the Tybee City Council, and Annie works at a wildlife refuge / zoo / educational facility back towards Savannah. We spent a fe whours on the island, walked along the beach, saw where author Pat Conroy taught school as a VISTA (the basis for his book The Water is Wide), saw dolphins, and got caught in the water by a fast moving storm. The storm was my favorite part, because it was one of those truly random life moments that I couldn’t have predicted I would found myself in. There we were in the middle of the water, the waves kicking the boat up so hard that Sean and Annie were being thrown up tin the air (Sean holding a rope to keep from flying off, Annie holding their Dog Sandy to keep HIM from leaping out of the boat). Then the rain just came down and soaked all of us, especially poor Cheryl, who was getting rain and Sea spray right in the face. Obviously, we arrived safely, but drenched. So back to the house to dry off and shower. We were invited to go to a party down the road, but instead stayed in, cooked dinner, played Mille Bornes, and watched bad pop music on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve.

So my parents, Katie, and myself spent Christmas up in Cape May, NJ with Katie’s mom and stepdad, Diana and Jim Cutshall. The trip up was fun, with an awesome rendition of the Nutcracker Suite by mom and yours truly (the ride BACK, however- not so great, but I digress)…

The visit was a lot of fun, with all the eating and visiting that goes along with the holidays. PLUS we continue with the Birthday celebrations, as December is quite the month for the extended family. Niece Maddie’s is on the 12th, Jim’s is on the 19th (or 18th?? AHH!), mine the 22nd, and Katie’s Grandmom Sarah’s is Christmas day (her 80th! Talk about a milestone.) So we had lots of celebrating. As per usual, folks were way too generous, but I appreciated all the gifts I received (especially my new distraction, a video iPod). I won’t say too much more, but it was great to see everybody.

On December 22, I turned the big 3-0. Which is cool to me. Rather than a milestone to freak out about and second-guess how I’ve spent my time, I view as a good solid benchmark. When you’re thirty, I feel you officially enter the “adult” stage, if not in your own eyes (‘cause I still feel like a kid), but in society’s view. I’ve had a lot of jobs where I was by far the youngest person on staff and sometimes struggled to be taken seriously, rather than just the “kid-sidekick” of an older coworker (perfect example: Madison County Cultural Center- my boss Mark McCrary treated me very well, as did most folks I encountered, but several times I feel like people would write me off as just a kid). I enjoy getting older because it gets me deeper into the “Grown-Up Club” (I originally typed “adult club” here but that sounded too much like a strip club). So I’m digging the thirties so far.

So I celebrated this milestone with some of my favorite people: my lovely wife Katie, my parents (who came up from Mississippi to join us for Christmas in Cape May, NJ) and Aden and Mohamed, two Somali teenagers. We ate at Al Amir, my favorite restaurant, and a place where I thought Aden and Mohamed would really enjoy since it is Muslim run and Middle Eastern cuisine. Turns out they both enjoyed it, but I don’t think they’d ever been to a “sit-down” restaurant with menus and such. Though they enjoyed the meal and meeting my folks, Mohamed was so nervous he barely said a word and after going over the menu, he finally settled on chicken fingers and French fries. Cracked me up. After dinner, I took the boys hoe and we had some family time of opening birthday gifts and Christmas presents (opened early to make sure we had room in the car for the trip to Jersey).

Dad, Mom, and the Kate-ster

Aden, Glow-in-the-Dark Man, and Mohamed (I tried to correct this photo but I am so washed out there was no contrast to even work with!)